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Friday, February 3, 2012

DIY Labels!

Have I mentioned before how much I love Pinterest? Seriously, I get "sew-n-so" inspired as I waste spend time lurking thru the gazillions of photos! Today's tutorials is pinterest-inspired!It seems I ALWAYS need labels, especially when I am fresh out of them! With this tutorial, I will never - ever have to order or wait for an order to arrive again. I can make them on the fly, and they are both time and money-savers...and that makes me very happy!

These labels are just my testers there is still some tweeking that needs to be done to make the even better. I am very pleased with the results tho and they are amazingly easy to create!

I followed a tutorial from Pinterest, but there were a few things I didn't like about that tutorial, besides the fact that I had a few of my own ideas that I wanted to try. If you remember, several years ago I created a tutorial on making your own labels, but my new method is 100% better!

I went to my local Hobby Lobby store and bought some Iron-on transfer paper for Ink Jet Printers. This is an awesome product that allows you to use your ink jet printer and print onto a film that is on paper and then iron it onto fabric! I also bought a couple packages of Wrights Twill Tape in 2 sizes.

I created my logo that I wanted on my label in Pixelator - you can use whichever program you have in your computer to create text with graphics. You can also use an online source, such as Picnik.Adding in wing-dings with just your name is also quite cute! Once you have your logo created, import it into a word processing document - I am using Pages on my mac, but windows-uses can use any Word Processing Document. Mirror image the design - it HAS to be mirror imaged to work. I created 4 columns and then copied and pasted as many times as I could for the page.

Next step is to load the Print 'n Press paper into the printer. Make sure that you load the paper in correctly - instructions for that is in the packet of paper. Print your page and it will look like this: a whole sheet of mirror-imaged logos!

Here's a closer look: for this 2nd label, I used wing-dings on my computer for the ornamental design! Also remember that the sky is the limit for colors you want to use - all colors and multiple colors in your logo will work just fine!

The next step I took was to cut rows of the logos with a paper cutter. This just makes it easy to have your logos evenly spaced on the Twill Tape and make several at a time! I wouldn't make much more than four at a time.

Lay the printed side down on the Twill Tape - you should be able to easily line up the logo onto the Twill Tape.

If it's hard to see, then you can lay the Twill Tape on top of the printed transfer paper - it really doesn't matter.

Using your iron, you will transfer the logo to the Twill Tape. Don't rub back and forth - just press and move to another area - you can also flip it over and press again.

When you peel the paper away, you are left with the logo imprinted on the Twill Tape! It's just as easy as that! The logo will have a sort of a film on top - this makes it so that your label can be washed and the logo won't wash away! The nice thing about using Twill Tape is that all the edges are finished, you can cut off each label as you need it and then either fray check the cut sides, turn under and stitch, or zigzag to finish off.

I hope I have inspired you to create your own unique labels! I know I am going to be making all kinds of them!

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THIS IS GREAT! I just found this on Pinterest. You have access to my exact setup (Mac, Hobby Lobby, Ink Jet Printer, Wing-Dings. It's like it was made just for me. I appreciate the tutorial. I'm getting these supplies this week and labeling all my quilts I've made so far, which I have thus far failed to do. Thanks!